Author: 25978388

The opioid epidemic killed more than 33,000 people in 2015. What follows are stories of a national affliction that has swept the country, from cities on the West Coast to bedroom communities in the Northeast. Opioid addiction is America’s 50-state epidemic. It courses along Interstate highways in the form of cheap smuggled heroin, and flows out of “pill mill” clinics where pain medicine is handed out like candy. It has ripped through New England towns, where people overdose in the aisles of dollar stores, and it has ravaged coal country, where addicts speed-dial the sole doctor in town licensed to prescribe a medication. Public health officials have called the current opioid epidemic the worst drug crisis in American history, killing more than 33,000 people in 2015. Overdose deaths were nearly…

Drugged driving, like drunk driving, is a choice and 100% preventable crime, leaving families and hearts broken. That’s why MADD changed its mission statement in 2015 to include, “help fight drugged driving.” We have long supported victims and survivors of drugged driving crashes, as well as supporting law enforcement’s efforts to deter and detect drugged drivers to keep our roads save. And we will continue to do so. MADD hopes to bring awareness to the growing threat of drugged driving on our roadways, much in the same way we have with drunk driving since our founding in 1980. While the substances are different, the results are the same – needless deaths and injuries. There are many substance impairing drugs—both legal and illegal—that can impair driving skills. Over-the-counter Prescription Legal medicinal/recreational…

In 2013, a total of 1,149 children 14 and younger were killed in motor vehicle traffic crashes. Of those 1,149 fatalities, 200 (17%) occurred in alcohol-impaired-driving crashes. Out of those 200 deaths, 121 (61%) were occupants of vehicles with drivers who had BACs of .08 or higher, and another 29 children (15%) were pedestrians or pedalcyclists struck by drivers with BACs of .08 or higher